A 23-year-old man was yesterday sentenced to five years in prison and banned from driving for 25 years after "a horrific" incident in which he caused the deaths of two Polish motorcyclists in Co Kerry.
Thomas O'Regan, Garryduff, Newcastlewest, Co Limerick, pleaded guilty to the charge of dangerous driving causing the deaths of Marek Olszowka (32) and Kazimierz Kawa (31), a father of young twin girls, at Ballyduff, Knocknagoshel, on June 25th, 2006.
O'Regan, who works as a water meter inspector and is a father of two, also pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and to having no insurance. The car he was driving was not his own and he had taken it without the owner's permission, Tralee Circuit Criminal Court heard.
It was the collective view of the emergency services that this was one of the most "traumatic" and "gruesome" incidents ever dealt with by emergency services in Co Kerry, the court was told.
Relatives of the dead men, who included their long-time partners and the father and sister of Mr Olszowka, clung to each other and held hands as the details of the incident were outlined to the court by Garda Sgt Derek Fleming.
The two men had attended a Harley-Davidson motor cycle festival in Killarney and were returning to Dublin to catch the ferry back to England where they worked, Sgt Fleming said.
They were behind an Opel car driven by friends. It was a clear June morning and, at about 6am, at a slight bend on the wide stretch of road, the accused man in a BMW three-litre car travelling from Abbeyfeale spun across to the wrong side of the road into the rear of the Opel. His car then collided with the two motor cyclists.
"They received horrific injuries and they died instantly," Sgt Fleming told prosecuting counsel Tom Rice.
Minutes before the incident, the defendant had been seen driving at "extraordinary speed" through Abbeyfeale. He had been drinking in a pub there after-hours, and was found to have a reading of 120mg of alcohol in his blood, 40mg above the legal limit. The court heard he had previous convictions, including one for drink-driving.
Defence counsel Anthony Sammon SC said O'Regan, one of a family of six, had been affected by the separation of his parents while a teenager. He had sought counselling for his emotional problems. He was eager to work and was in a steady relationship with his partner.
The scale of the loss he had caused was colossal, Mr Sammon said. "He regrets to the marrow of his bones what he has done."
Victim impact statements were given by the partners and relatives of the dead men. The court heard how Mr Olszowka and his partner were saving to build a house in Poland, to get married and "grow old together".
Mr Kawa's twin girls, six months old at the time of the incident, would never know what it was to have a father, his partner said.
Judge Carroll Moran said he took into account the guilty plea. He accepted the accused did not intend to kill anyone, but alcohol and taking a powerful car without the owner's permission were among the aggravating factors.